The present invention relates to a method for preparing a ginseng polysaccharide for immune stimulation and a ginseng polysaccharide for immune stimulation prepared therefrom, and more particularly, to a method for preparing a ginseng polysaccharide for immune stimulation that uses a ginseng polysaccharide extract containing glucose, galactose, arabinose, glucuronic acid, and galacturonic acid as active ingredients to reinforce immunity and improve control function, and a ginseng polysaccharide for immune stimulation prepared from the method.
The materials of Chinese herbal medicine, like ginseng, milk vetch root (Astragalus membranaceus), liriope tuber (Liriope muscari), etc., are recognized in their functions and widely used for the purpose of alleviation and cure of diseases. Out of the Chinese herbal medicine, ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer, Araliaceae) has long been used as one of the most precious herbal medicines in Asian countries. Ginseng is the broadest concept that includes undried ginseng, white ginseng, red ginseng, wild ginseng, wood grown ginseng, tail ginseng, fresh ginseng, Taekuk ginseng, etc. The medicinal effects of ginseng are embodied in a number of medical books throughout a long history of use, and ginseng is the unchallenged health functional food in today's Korea. With the westernized dietary life, the raised standard of living and the widespread well-being concept, the current customers' preferences for food come down to diversity, high quality and health. It is therefore expected to have more demands for development of more diverse products derived from ginseng that is the representative health functional food in Korea. The general ingredients of ginseng are 50 to 70% of carbohydrates, 10 to 15% of crude protein, 3 to 8% of crude saponin, and 3 to 7% of ash, and the principal bioactive ingredients are saponin, phenols, polyacetylenes, alkaloids, polysaccharides, etc. The representative medicinal ingredient is ginseng saponin, called “ginsenoside”, which is named specifically for ginseng saponin apart from other kinds of plant-derived saponins. Ginseng saponin is a glycoside consisting of glycine and aglycone portions and comes in about thirty kinds of which the structures are identified.
According to the recent studies, non-saponin portions as well as saponin portions have different medicinal actions. Therefore, such active portions are under multimodal pharmacological researches.
The non-saponin portions include essential oil, phytosterol, polyacetylenes, polyphenols, flavonoids, polysaccharides, alkaloids, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes.
The polysaccharides are classified into ginsan and panaxan. For ginsan (ginseng polysaccharide), the suffix “-an” referring to polysaccharide is added to the word “gins” of ginseng. The ginsan is a pure monosaccharide consisting of glucane (i.e., a polysaccharide of glucose monomers) and fructan (i.e., a polysaccharide of fructose monomers) and has a molecular weight of about 5,000 to 15,000, which means that the ginsan is a nanoparticle-sized polymer material. According to the results of animal experiments, the ginsan promotes the regeneration and differentiation of peripheral blood cells as well as myelocytes to accelerate hematosis and antibacterial activity and reduces side effects of radioactive treatments. Further, the ginsan activates macrophages to promote the production of interleukin-12 so that Th1-lymphocyte activates the production of interferon, increasing the activity of natural killer cells (also called “NK-cells”) and the cell-mediated immunity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes against cancer cells. The ginsan is also reported to be effective in the treatment of diseases such as diabetes by reducing the blood glucose level. On the other hand, there are 21 types of panaxan, panaxan A to U, which are known to reduce the risk of cancer.
In the prior art regarding the ginseng polysaccharide, KR Patent Registration No. 0144130 (Apr. 15, 1998) discloses a ginseng protein polysaccharide used as a radiation protector and comprised of glucose, galactose, galacturonic acid, and protein. Yet, the ginseng protein polysaccharide of the prior art has no effect to reinforce immunity or improve control function by increasing the production and activity of immunocytes. In addition, KR Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2013-0010987 (Jan. 30, 2013) describes a method for purifying a ginseng panaxan monosaccharide having effects to reinforce immunity against cancer and promote hematogenous function, an analysis method for defining the characteristics of the purified panaxan monosaccharide, and a composition for immune stimulation to fight cancer and promotion of hematogenous function that comprises the analyzed ginseng panaxan monosaccharide. This prior art has no mention to ginsan components, such as galactose, arabinose, glucuronic acid, etc., other than a concentrated panaxan and does not describe the case in which it is applied to the human body, so that it lacks in information on the effects of the purified ginseng panaxan monosaccharide as a complementary medicine.
Although so many studies have been made on the preparation method of ginseng polysaccharides in association with the extraction method of ginseng polysaccharides, there is a lack of research on the ginseng polysaccharide comprising glucose, galactose, arabinose, glucuronic acid, and galacturonic acid and having effects to reinforce immunity and improve control function, and above all, a paucity of study with the method for analyzing a ginseng polysaccharide in association with human body. Therefore, more consistent research is necessary to solve this problem.